The invention relates to a new apparatus for producing motion to drive items such as novelties, displays, or a variety of other items.
In the past, various gears, gear and rack combinations, chains, pulley and belt combinations, and pulley and gear combinations in conjunction with friction drives, or a combination of gear and friction drives, have been used to produce forward or backward, circular, eliptical, or wave-like motion. However, in such motion producing mechanisms using such drives, or combinations of such drives, the result is typically a relatively heavy, complicated, and expensive driving mechanism. For example, chains and racks are typically somewhat bulky. Similarly, endless belt systems generally require pulleys to stretch the belt across. Such pulleys take up extra space, as well as adding to the weight and cost of the system.
These factors are especially disadvantageous in the use of such motion producing mechanisms to drive novelty items or items for display since such items require the weight and cost of the drive mechanism to be as small as possible. Thus, what is needed, is a motion producing mechanism engineered to be of a very simple, light and inexpensive construction.